Z kroniky Josefa Umláška

The artist Josef Umlášek (1906-1986) was born in Sokolnice, a township east of the Moravian metropolis Brno. His family owned a farmstead ("grunt") in Sokolnice. Based on his memories of childhood and youth spent in Sokolnice, where he often returned even after leaving his birthplace, he wrote Family Chronicle, illustrated by a number of his own watercolours and prints. Based on a date in one of these pictures, they were created in 1969. Among his other inspirations were the farm works, setting the pace of the country life, and old lanes, abolished during the socialisation of the countryside after 1948 or the rebuilding of his family farmstead and Sokolnice itself. We have chosen several texts from the chronicle of J. Umlášek, related to the agrarian culture and documenting the extinct technologies of farm works and the technology used. The second cycle includes the changes of the landscape and, in particular, the disappearance of the old communications and the original rustic register.